High Intensive Focused Ultrasound Probe

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to an ultrasound probe, and particularly, to a high intensive focused ultrasound probe that noninvasively treats skin by using a high intensive focused ultrasound (HIFU).

Skin procedure using a high intensive focused ultrasound (HIFU) has recently been in spotlight. This is a technology of treating skin by using an effect (wrinkle removal, skin elasticity improvement, and the like) occurring when high intensive acoustic energy is focused on a local site in a body by using the high intensive focused ultrasound to increase temperature and thus a degenerated tissue is regenerated due to thermal variations occurring in the local site in the body.

A device that treats skin by using the high intensive focused ultrasound includes a transducer. The transducer generates high intensive ultrasound from an input power source and outputs the high intensive ultrasound. A general high intensive focused ultrasound device uses a circular single-element ultrasound transducer as a transducer. That is, a method is used to transmit strong ultrasound energy to a treatment site through the circular single-element ultrasound transducer.

A high intensive focused ultrasound device in the related art generally includes the transducer in a cartridge portion that physically comes into direct contact with the skin. In order to more effectively transmit high intensive focused ultrasound generated by the transducer to the skin, the inside of the cartridge is filled with a liquid ultrasound transmission medium, and degassed water (water from which air has been removed) is generally used as the ultrasound transmission medium.

As described above, the ultrasound transmission medium vibrates due to ultrasound and transmits the high intensive focused ultrasound generated by the transducer to the skin. Therefore, in the process of transmitting the ultrasound, temperature inevitably increases (increases up to about 45° C. to 50° C.) due to friction between particles caused by the vibration. As a result, there is a problem in that a user may feel discomfort and may be burned in severe cases.

Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2012-0140288 (Published on Dec. 31, 2012)

Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2014-0141062 (Published on Dec. 10, 2014)

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a high intensive focused ultrasound probe that can effectively suppress an increase in the temperature of an ultrasound transmission medium (for example, degassed water) filled in the high intensive focused ultrasound probe.

Problems to be solved by the present disclosure are not limited to the aforementioned problems, and the other unmentioned problems will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

The present disclosure provides a high intensive focused ultrasound probe that emits high intensive focused ultrasound to skin, the high intensive focused ultrasound probe including a cartridge having an internal space filled with a liquid ultrasound transmission medium, a handpiece to which the cartridge is coupled, a transducer arranged in the internal space of the cartridge and configured to generate high intensive focused ultrasound from an input power source and output the generated high intensive focused ultrasound, and a shaft configured to guide a one-dimensional linear motion of the transducer with respect to a specific direction in the internal space

In an embodiment, the shaft may be configured in a form of a hollow pipe having an empty interior, and the shaft having the form of a hollow pipe may serve as a heat exchange pipe that circulates a cooling medium in the internal space. In this case, an increase in the temperature of a liquid ultrasonic transmission medium filled in the internal space can be suppressed by the cooling effect of the cooling medium circulating in the internal space along the shaft.

In an embodiment, the shaft may include a first pipe portion into which the cooling medium is introduced through an inlet formed on a side of a first sidewall of the cartridge, a second pipe portion parallel to the first pipe portion and through which the cooling medium is discharged through an outlet formed on the side of the first sidewall, and a connection pipe portion configured to connect the first pipe portion and the second pipe portion so that the cooling medium is able to flow.

As an embodiment, at least a part of the connection pipe portion may protrude outward from a second sidewall of the cartridge on an opposite side of the first sidewall and may be exposed to the outside (air). In this case, some of heat is released into the air while the cooling medium passes through the connection pipe portion exposed to the outside, so that the cooling medium can recover its cooling performance.

Heat dissipation fins may also be attached to a surface of the connection pipe portion protruding outward from the first sidewall and exposed to the outside. In this case, the cooling performance of the cooling medium can be significantly recovered by the heat dissipation fins attached to the surface of the connection pipe portion.

As another embodiment, the connection pipe portion may also be arranged in the internal space of the cartridge. In this case, since the connection pipe portion is not exposed to the outside, it is difficult to expect an effect of recovering the cooling performance of the cooling medium through heat exchange with the outside air, but the structure is advantageous in terms of miniaturization or compactness of the device.

In an embodiment, a supply pipe introduced from an outside into an inside of the handpiece may be connected to the inlet of the first pipe portion through a first connection port, and a discharge pipe drawn out from the inside of the handpiece to the outside may be connected to the outlet of the second pipe portion through a second connection port.

In an embodiment, the cooling medium may be water or air.

When the cooling medium is water, a check valve, which prevents the backflow of the cooling medium, that is, allows cooling water to flow only in one predetermined direction, can be installed in the first connection port and the second connection port.

In this case, the check valve of the first connection port can be arranged so that the cooling medium flows only in the direction from the supply pipe to the first pipe portion, and the check valve of the second connection port can be arranged so that the cooling medium flows only in the direction from the second pipe portion to the discharge pipe.

In an embodiment, the transducer may be connected to a movable block moving along the shaft and may make a one-dimensional linear reciprocating motion in a specific direction together with the movable block.

A high intensive focused ultrasound probe according to the present disclosure may further include an external rotating shaft configured to rotate inside the handpiece by a motor, an internal rotating shaft configured to move the transducer while rotating inside the cartridge, and a magnet coupler configured to magnetically couple the external rotating shaft and the internal rotating shaft with a first sidewall of the cartridge interposed between the external rotating shaft and the internal rotating shaft.

The magnet coupler may include a first coupler coupled to the external rotating shaft and making a synchronized rotational motion, and a second coupler coupled to the internal rotating shaft and forming magnetic coupling with the first coupler with the first sidewall interposed between the first coupler and the second coupler

As an embodiment, one of the first coupler and the second coupler may be a magnetic material and the other one of the first coupler and the second coupler may be a permanent magnet.

As another embodiment, the first coupler and the second coupler may be permanent magnets, and a magnetic pole of a surface of the first coupler and a magnetic pole of a surface of the second coupler may be opposite to each other, the two surfaces being in close contact with each other with the first sidewall interposed therebetween.

As another embodiment, a plurality of coupling magnets may be separately mounted at uniform intervals along a rotation direction on a surface of the first coupler and a surface of the second coupler, the two surfaces facing each other with the first sidewall interposed therebetween. In this case, coupling magnets mounted on the surface of the first coupler may be arranged so that magnetic poles of sides exposed to an outside are alternated with respect to the rotation direction, and coupling magnets mounted on the surface of the second coupler may be arranged so that magnetic poles of sides exposed to the outside are alternated with respect to the rotation direction.

A plurality of balls or needle pins may be installed on the surface of the first coupler and the surface of the second coupler, the two surfaces facing each other with the first sidewall interposed therebetween. In this case, at least a part of the balls or the needle pins may protrude from the surfaces facing each other to support rotational motions of the first coupler and the second coupler in a state of being in contact with the first sidewall.

A ring-shaped internal rotation guide may be further formed on an inner surface of the first sidewall where the magnet coupler is located. In addition, a ring-shaped external rotation guide may be further formed on an outer surface of the first sidewall corresponding to the internal rotation guide.

In this case, the magnet coupler may be arranged in an internal coupler receiving portion and an external coupler receiving portion respectively partitioned in an inside and an outside of the first sidewall by the internal rotation guide and the external rotation guide

A first lubricating layer may be formed by a lubricant between the first coupler and a first sidewall of the external coupler receiving portion. In addition, a second lubricating layer may be formed by a lubricant between the second coupler and a first sidewall of the internal coupler receiving portion.

In an embodiment, the internal rotating shaft may be configured in the form of a lead screw having threads formed along its peripheral surface, and the movable block may be formed with a fastening hole screw-coupled with the threads of the internal rotating shaft. Accordingly, when the internal rotating shaft rotates, the movable block moves linearly along the internal rotating shaft according to the rotational motion, so that skin treatment or handling can be performed on a wider site.

In an embodiment, the internal space of the cartridge may be divided by a space partition plate into a first space and a second space isolated from the first space.

In this case, the first space may be filled with a liquid ultrasound transmission medium, and the transducer and the internal rotating shaft may be arranged in the first space filled with the liquid ultrasound transmission medium.

A circuit board that controls the transducer may be arranged in the second space.

In an embodiment, at least two detection elements that detect a position of the movable block may be mounted at a distance from each other on the circuit board. In addition, an element to be detected may be arranged on a surface of the movable block adjacent to the circuit board.

Preferably, the detection element may be a Hall element, and the element to be detected may be a permanent magnet.

According to the present disclosure, the high intensive focused ultrasound probe is configured so that the cooling medium (cooling water or cold air) moves along the shaft that guides the linear motion of the transducer within the cartridge and cools the liquid ultrasound transmission medium (for example, degassed water) filled in the cartridge. Accordingly, an increase in the temperature of the cartridge can be suppressed, and problems of the related art, such as discomfort or burns caused by an increase in the temperature of the cartridge, can be solved.

In particular, since the shaft also serves as the heat exchange pipe (cooling pipe) for cooling the ultrasound transmission medium, no separate additional configuration is required to suppress an increase in the temperature of the cartridge. That is, it has the advantage of being an efficient configuration that can implement stable linear motion of the transducer and cartridge cooling with one shaft, and since no separate additional configuration is required for cooling implementation, a high-functionality product with an added cooling function can be provided at low cost.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present disclosure are described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

For reference, in the description of embodiments of the present disclosure, the same or similar components are given the same reference numerals and duplicate descriptions thereof are omitted. Even when it is determined that detailed descriptions of related publicly-known technologies may obscure the subject matter of the embodiments disclosed in the present specification, the detailed descriptions thereof are omitted.

In addition, the suffixes “module” and “unit” for components used in the following description are given or used interchangeably only for the convenience of writing a specification, and do not have distinct meanings or roles in themselves.

In addition, in the description of embodiments of the present disclosure, it should be noted that the accompanying drawings are intended only to help easily understand the embodiments disclosed in the present specification and are not intended to limit the technical spirit disclosed in the present specification, and the present disclosure includes all modifications, equivalents, or substitutes included in the spirit and technical scope of the present disclosure.

In addition, in the description of embodiments of the present disclosure, terms including ordinal numbers such as first and second may be used to describe various components, but the components are not limited by the terms. The terms are used only to distinguish one component from another component.

In addition, when it is described that one component is “connected” or “coupled” to another component, it should be understood that one component may be directly connected or coupled to the another component, but another component may exist between the two components.

On the other hand, when it is described that one component is “directly connected to” or “directly coupled to” another component, it should be understood that another component does not exist between the two components.

In addition, terms such as “includes”, “comprises” or “has” used in the description of embodiments of the present disclosure are intended to designate the presence of features, numbers, steps, operations, components, parts, or combinations of the present disclosure, and should be understood as not excluding in advance the possibility of the presence or addition of one or more other features, numbers, steps, operations, components, parts or combinations thereof.

In addition, the fact that a component is “in front,” “behind,” “above,” or “below” another component includes not only the case where it is directly adjacent to the another component and is disposed “in front,” “behind,” “above,” or “below,” but also the case where another component is further disposed therebetween unless otherwise specified.

The drawings are intended only to help understand the spirit of the present disclosure, and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present disclosure. In addition, it should be noted that the relative thickness, length, or size in the drawings may be exaggerated for the convenience and clarity of explanation.

is a device configuration diagram schematically illustrating the overall configuration of a skin treatment device adopting a high intensive focused ultrasound probe according to embodiments of the present disclosure. First, the configuration of the skin treatment device adopting the high intensive focused ultrasound probe according to embodiments of the present disclosure is briefly described with reference to.

The skin treatment device related to the present disclosure is a device that noninvasively treats or handles skin by using an effect (wrinkle removal, subcutaneous fat removal, skin elasticity improvement, and the like) occurring when high intensive acoustic energy is focused on a local site in a body by using high intensive focused ultrasound to increase temperature and thus a degenerated tissue is regenerated due to thermal variations occurring in the local site in the body.

Referring to, a skin treatment deviceincludes a main bodyand a high intensive focused ultrasound probe(hereinafter, referred to as an ‘ultrasound probe’ for convenience of explanation). The main bodycontrols the ultrasound probe. High intensive focused ultrasound is generated from the ultrasound probeunder the control of the main body, and the generated high intensive focused ultrasound can induce thermal variations by being focused on the inside of the body (for example, a dermis layer) through the ultrasound probe.